Built to celebrate amateur golf and amateur golfers, The Honors Course continues to live up to the vision Jack Lupton had when having it built in 1983.
That was true again this week in the 104th Tennessee State Amateur Championship, which ended Friday like the previous three days – with Brentwood’s Nolan Ray on top.
“The Honors Course is such a special place, and to win this championship takes the cake as far as the top moment in my career,” Ray said after shooting 3-under-par 285 for 72 holes. “A week before the tournament I put my wallpaper on my phone as this trophy, so this is an extraordinary moment.”
Clemson’s William Nottingham from Kingsport was second at 286, a stroke ahead of Milton’s Tanner Owens and Nashville’s Luke Zieman. Jack Crosby of Memphis, Ryan Greer of Knoxville and Bryce Lewis of Hendersonville tied for fifth at 290. Zieman, Crosby and Lewis led the final day’s scoring with 69s.
Mikey Feher of Signal Mountain was the low man for the Chattanooga area with a 3-over 291, tying for eighth with a closing 75.
Feher was the only golfer with a bogey-free round, which came on Thursday with his 67. The former Baylor School and Lipscomb University standout also nearly sank a hole-in-one on the same hole, No. 3, his late father aced twice.
“I grew up at the Honors, and my dad (Mike) was a club champion here. He is my biggest inspiration,” Feher said. “We used to play every night together. We actually spread his ashes out on the course on the holes he had holes-in-one on. This week meant so much to me, it’s hard to put in words.”
The former Red Raider birdied 16 times in the four days.
“Golf is the most similar game in the world to life,” Feher said. “You are going to have a lot of bad breaks. It doesn’t always go your way, but when it does it is so satisfying, and you can sleep well knowing you accomplished something great.”
A local All-American and three-time conference champion for Dalton State College, Ben Rebne of Ringgold, was in third place after the first two rounds and tied for 11th at 293.
“Everyone coming out of high school thinks (NCAA) Division I is the way you have to go, but there are so many good players in every division. You can never cancel us out,” said Rebne, who was one of five NAIA finalists for the honor of Jack Nicklaus national player of the year. “Golf is a mental game, and if you have that down you can have an edge against the best.”
Ooltewah’s Oliver Simonsen – another Baylor alumnus now playing for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga – finished tied for 18th, along with Tullahoma’s Jack Uselton, with a 10-over 298 on the course literally in Simonsen’s back yard.
Middle Tennessee State’s Owens was red-hot down the stretch with six birdies on the back nine. The left-handed power hitter finished with a tournament-best 18 birdies.
With all eyes on Ray at the finish line on No. 18, the former Tennessee Volunteers golfer now headed to Lipscomb escaped trouble.
His 310-yard drive off the tee went wide left and sat right behind a tree. Ray hit a wedge shot into the middle of the fairway and then from 110 yards out sent a perfect strike just left of the hole as he hung on to his title dreams.
“Everything about this week was great,” Ray said. “The food, the cabins, the golf course and staff were all first class. This is a dream come true and gives me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.